Factory barrel life question

jmason · #1 03-15-2009, 04:13 PM

I have noticed recently I need to clean my barrel about every 20 shots. I didn't have to clean it this much in the past to stay accurate. When the accuracy drops off it shots about 2 moa. When a factory barrel comes to the end of its life cycle is this a symptom? To give some background I have just about 1000 rds through it and it is a 270 win. The first 300 rounds or so where 3600+ FPS varmint loads, I then went to a heavier bullet and more conservative loads for the rest.

James Jones · #2 03-15-2009, 05:16 PM

It sounds like its getting near the end of its life , you may be able to get a little bit more out of by "Fire Lapping" the barrel , this will smooth out the rough throat area a little bit and might give you some more time. You could also set the barrel back a little bit and rechamber , this will clean up alot of the throat area but again its just buying a little bit of time.

Or you could just stick with cleaning it alot more often , I know a guy that bought a "shot out" bench rest barrel , it will foul out in about 20 shots and start throwing a pattern but its on a deer rifle that only gets shot 20-30 times a year anyway.

sound like a damn fine cantidate for a new custom barrel.

Michael Eichele · #3 03-15-2009, 05:18 PM

When you clean your rifle, do you think it is clean? Or is it clean down to the bare metal?

Sometimes when you clean a barrel, you may think it is clean but really isnt. After so many sessions of shooting and cleaning more and more build up occurs and you can see you symtoms. That doesnt meen that is your problem, just a possibility. I honestly dont know the life expectancy of a 270 so I cant say the barrel is on its way out or not but I would definatley give her a DEEP cleaning and see if that helps. Try JB bore paste and scrub her real good a few times. Then clean the paste out with solvent. After that you may try soaking the barrel in sweets 7.62 solvent for 10 minutes or so. Again, remove ALL sweets by use of another solvent.

Good luck!

J E Custom · #4 03-15-2009, 06:54 PM

The 270 should be good for 3 or 4000 rds minimum before there is an accuracy
issue.

It sounds like it just needs a thorough cleaning with some sweets.

Use a cotton swab and a nylon brush so that the bronze doesent leave brass in the bore
and give you a false reading. (use the bronze brushes untill you think it is clean and then
switch to the nylon brush and verify that it is clean.

Once you get it clean shoot no more than 5 or 6 rounds and clean.

If this rifle is used for target shooting where 20+ shots are required with out stoping then
you may need to rebarrel with a CUSTOM BARREL.

J E CUSTOM

jmason · #5 03-16-2009, 09:21 AM

Thanks for the replies. It is going to get rebarreled, I just didn't plan on it acting up before I get my other rifle back from the smith. I will try some different cleaning solvents to see if it helps. Right now to clean it I have been using gunslick foam. It takes a lot of work to get to the point my patches come out clean, but I didn't care about the time involved as long as it came clean. I soak it a couple times for a couple hours, and brush to get most of it out then I let it go over night. Normally after the over night soak it comes clean to the point there is no more powder or copper fouling showing up on the patches. It seems after the first couple soaks all the powder comes out then I just have to deal with the copper. The barrel has always been a picky barrel but would let me get a lot more shooting in before it would go south.

BountyHunter · #6 03-16-2009, 10:01 AM

Like some said, it could be more than needing a rebarrel.

1. It could be carbon ring buildup in the throat. Wipeout and wipeout accelerator will take that out. Copper removers do nothing for carbon.

2. Before rebarrelling, try to have your smith or someone with a borescope look at it. if it is "firecracked" bad with holes where it is peeling, then nothing will take that out and firelapping will only make it worse. Rebarrel

BH

jmason · #7 03-19-2009, 08:45 AM

I got some wipeout (the carbon remover flavor). It didn't show that there was anything left in the barrel over what was removed by the gunslick stuff. I'll get some sweets, and JB bore paste and see if it finds anything the other two couldn't. If nothing else I'll know if there's anything that these products leaves behind and which product finds it.